A Study in Science
by Spheral3
Summary: Having grown bored of the two A.I.'s she had constructed, GLaDOS eagerly tries to lure in a new test subject. However, the one who showed up in the facility was not who she expected, but in the name of science she started to conduct her tests. Meanwhile, her real target is hidden in the inner workings of the catwalks and offices, waiting for his chance to escape, or get revenge.


** Chapter 1: You Are John Watson**

**by Spheral3**

John leaned against the white wall of the testing chamber, blowing out in an effort to relieve the tension building in his chest. He ignored the sour smell of sweat on his cloths, and the hot stink of his breath. The Portal Gun weighed heavy in his hand, he let it fall to his side off his lap, making a dull thud onto the ground.

"The test isn't over," a cool female voice spoke in a tempered tone. It was _Her. _"Please pick up the Aperture Science Dual Portal Device and proceed to solve the test."

He had never known, or at least, could not recall, any voice but Hers. She had been there when he had woken up, had lead him everywhere he went. What he had at first thought to be a guiding voice of reason, had quickly become a polite and tempered tyrant.

He didn't respond to Her, and instead, whipped his face with his hand in aggravation and proceeded to lean his head back in rest. His dulled brown eyes looked up the a white ceiling, making him feel a bit nauseous and ill at the thought of how it looked like everything else. He ached for some sign of color. Rooms upon rooms of white panels were all he could recall, perhaps all he ever knew. He must have had a life outside of all this, for there were scares upon his body, old ones with which there came no recollection of their history. Not only that, but he was, of course, an adult, but without the memory of childhood or growing up. He knew things, plenty of things; names of the body, how it worked, what a doctor was (for he wondered if he ever was one with his amount of knowledge on the subject), and other such things beyond even that. However, he just couldn't get a grip on who he was, or how he ended up here.

John groaned, a chance to use his voice for something other than muttering under his breath.

"I repeat, the test _isn't_ over."

He remained where he was, his eyes searching the room for some tiny crack, a space of some kind.

Suddenly, the panel he sat on bucked up like the kick of a horse, sending him to collapse forward. He grunted and picked himself up.

"Kindly finish the test," she said, and a little sound followed to indicate that she was finished speaking.

He looked up, biting back his foul words. She could command him, threaten him, even hide his own history from him, but she would not make him speak. Mutter under his breath occasionally, sure, after all he was only human. John rose to his feet, his eyes glancing to a weighted testing cube only a few feet off. He then turned his gaze to a harsh red-lit laser beam that shot into a port not too far off. When block off, it would power down a glass panel, were behind, several turrets would be able to lock onto his position and proceed to fill him with generous amounts of lead. The turrets acted as a guard to a large button that lay just behind them. No bridges of light were available to act as a shield, and he was only given a few seconds to portal over behind them before they'd open fire..

John let out a sigh, which proceeded into a groan. It was all very easy. He was almost certain he'd done something of the like before. It was hard to tell at this point when he had done it, since the chambers just seemed to blur together after a while. He approached the cube, and picked it up with the help of his Portal gun. He walked over to the laser, set the cube down beside it, popped an orange Portal underneath himself, then picked the cube back up and got ready to set it into it's correct place between the laser. He simultaneously aimed his gun in the direction of where he needed to shoot the red portal.

He was interrupted by an explosion coming from the ceiling. Smoke seeped in through the crack, along with sparks popping out of little tiny flames. A few of the panels began to loosen from their position and shift. He watched, feeling a bit panicked. He felt his stomach sink, wondering if _She_ had grown impatient with him. Sometimes, in his more resilient moments, she had gassed the room as encouragement to complete the test. Yet, this was different.

The panel hung like the dead limb of an animal. A bullet of light shot through, and opened up a hole in the ground, a rim of navy blue light wring around it. Out popped a water jug that toppled around on the testing chamber floor before coming to a stop. Upon seeing this, John ran to the Portal in a mad dash, but it vanished in the next moment, leaving behind only the water jug.

He yelled in protest, his eyes shooting up to the ceiling where the panel hung loose. He could barely make out anything, except for a wide open space, and in the distance, the silhouette of a figure standing on a suspended I beam.

The arm of the panel came back to life, a green light at it's joint registered that it was back online. John instinctively reached out his hand as the space closed up once more.

"_Who are you_?" he yelled out, praying for his voice to carry out and into the void. The panel fit back into place, and John was once more sealed away. A rat in its cage. Stillness rung through the air, and he just stood there, staring at the panel, as if he could will it to open up. That had been his first glimpse of the man behind the messages.

There was someone else here in this strange place, beside the voice of _Her_, and that gave him comfort. Every now and then there had been broken panels, jetting out from the side of a testing chamber where one was able to crawl or portal into it and find them selves in a space without white walls or cameras of any kind, but they were one room dead ends. John had come to know the stranger only by his scrawling's left behind on the walls of secret passageways. What often decorated the walls were quick notes of chambers to come, or messages of hope. He had learned very quickly that She couldn't always see into these little spaces, and he'd have to make his time spent in these places limited, lest she find out. It was through these messages that he had been given his name. In the first chamber he had ever found, scrawled in giant black letters on an orange painted background was the message: "You are JOHN WATSON". He clung to that name, it had been the first little shred of identity he had come to know.

John had picked up the water jug and taken a drink from it, thankful for the cool sensation he felt running down his throat. He then proceeded to poor it over his head, wash his hands with it, and shake it off. This was truly a gift, though a better one might have been the chance to escape. A few clicks sounded in the room, announcing that She was about to speak.

"When you're finished making a mess, there's a test to solve."

John looked up into one of the little cameras on the wall, it was not discouraged by the glare John shot it. He stood up once more, Portal Gun in hand. He steadied himself next to the cube, once more preparing to kick it. He took a few breaths, his gaze forced onto his target panel, rather than the turrets that were peering at him from behind the glass. He breathed out one final time, ready now.

"I am John Watson, and I will get out of here."

Outside of the test chamber where gunfire rattled about, across a vast space of nothingness, there stood a man on a suspended metal frame. A pit of nothing lay between him and his captured friend. The sounds of John's aggravated defiance had rung clear in the man's ears, just before being forced to close off the Portal. Then, through the little window of freedom he had forced open with a bomb, he could see John, as a little patch of bright orange in a dull white room. His hand was out stretched to him, and perhaps he had been calling to him. The man heard John's call, but the words were lost behind the repaired panel arm. His light blue eyes shifted, their cold gaze aimed over to a dark chamber in the distant void. It was the center of this enormous place, the core of all these working parts, miles of transport tubes, and an unspeakable amounts of panels, cubes, buttons, and turrets. An A.I. was fixed in place there, running endless tests without reason or end. She was omnipresent, always aware, but he had discovered many rooms and offices that were beyond her reach. Amazing as it was, he had found that she was not entirely connected to the whole facility.

His attention was brought back to the chamber, the gun fire has ceased. He waited a few moments, silence followed. A clicking sound allowed him to release the breath of air he held. John had made it through, and hopefully without any damage. It was onto the next chamber, but he himself would not follow him. He looked out to the suspended chamber in the distance, the lair of the A.I.

"Soon," he said, his voice was like tempered thunder in the distance, threatening to grow louder. "Very soon, you shall know your end."


End file.
